Opinion
Brianna Kupfer’s alleged killer charged with murder in LA court
Brianna Kupfer‘s alleged killer, Shawn Laval Smith, was charged Friday within the stabbing demise of the 24-year-old UCLA graduate scholar as she was working at an upscale furnishings retailer in Los Angeles.
Smith, 31, faces a homicide cost and a particular allegation of use of harmful or lethal use of a weapon, prosecutors stated.
The 24-year-old was learning design as a grad scholar at UCLA.
(Todd Kupfer)
Authorities stated that Smith strolled into Croft Home, a luxurious furnishings retailer on North La Brea Avenue, on Jan. 13 and randomly attacked the design guide within the early afternoon.
Earlier than the stabbing, Kupfer despatched an ominous textual content to a buddy saying there was a person within the retailer making her uncomfortable, however the buddy didn’t instantly see the message, police stated.
FATHER OF SLAIN UCLA GRAD STUDENT BLAMES POLITICIANS FOR CRIME SPIKE
Moments later, Smith plunged a knife in Kupfer. A buyer entered the shop about 20 minutes later and located her lifeless, mendacity on the bottom coated in blood, in response to police.
Breanna Kupfer suspect Shawn Laval Smith seen on surveillance video at a 7-Eleven half-hour after the slaying.
(LAPD)
About half-hour after fleeing the shop, Smith was captured on surveillance video at 7-Eleven calmly shopping for a vape pen.
BRIANNA KUPFER’S ALLEGED KILLER SHAWN SMITH CAUGHT AFTER PEDESTRIAN CALLS 911
After a week-long manhunt, a pedestrian acknowledged Smith and known as 911.
The profession felony was out on a $50,000 bond in South Carolina for taking pictures a flare gun into the rear window of a stranger’s automobile in 2019 whereas a toddler was seated within the backseat throughout a highway rage incident.
Mourners gathered Thursday in entrance of the Los Angeles furnishings store to recollect Brianna Kupfer, who was stabbed to demise inside the shop final week.
He was busted once more Jan. 21, 2020, for biting a cop’s hand in Daly Metropolis, California, after vandalizing automobile. Smith pleaded responsible and served 133 days in jail earlier than his launch on probation in June. A warrant for his arrest was issued six months later for failure to adjust to the situations of his probation.
Brianna Kupfer labored at Croft Home, a luxurious furnishings retailer in Los Angeles, when she was stabbed to demise.
(Todd Kupfer)
Smith has a prolonged rap sheet, together with at the least 11 arrests in Charleston stretching again to 2010, court docket information present.
The mindless homicide has shaken a metropolis already reeling from a spike in violent crimes. A big vigil was held for Kupfer Thursday night time exterior the shop the place she was killed.
The slain girl’s father, Todd Kupfer, stated she had dreamed of launching her personal clothes line. The day she was murdered she was alleged to fly to New York for the weekend to have fun her finest buddy’s birthday.
“She was a sort soul and was all the time attempting to make herself higher and the whole lot round her higher,” Kupfer advised Fox Information Digital in an interview Tuesday. “She cared about individuals.”
